Indiana Girl Report provides outlook on challenges facing Hoosier girls

Girl Scouts has released The Indiana Girl Report.

The groundbreaking report was commissioned through the Indiana Youth Institute in collaboration with Girl Scout councils from across the state and the Girl Coalition of Indiana. The report is the very first of its kind and was developed through qualitative and quantitative research to provide insight into critical challenges girls are experiencing and the variances across the state.

The report’s findings create a foundation for understanding key issues impacting the quality of life for girls. It also offers a roadmap for cultivating supportive environments and developing resources for girls to help them navigate through topics often considered taboo including mental health, sexual dating violence, gender bias, bullying, and more.

Shockey

“The Indiana Girl Report data shows that we are not prioritizing their well-being as well as we need to be,” Girl Scouts of Central Indiana CEO Danielle Shockey said.

Key findings from the research include:

1. Among seventh- to 12^th-grade girls in Indiana, 47.1 percent experienced depression in 2022 and nearly one in four girls seriously considered suicide.
2. Girls in Indiana are more likely than boys to become victims of bullying. They are twice as likely to become victims of traditional bullying and three times as likely to become victims of cyberbullying compared to boys.
3. From 2015 to 2021, the rate of physical and sexual dating violence among girls in Indiana has increased, while the prevalence among boys has decreased. Seventeen percent of high school girls reported having experienced sexual dating violence in 2021 – five times the rate of boys.
4. In 2021, girls were admitted for inpatient care at a hospital more than three times the rate of boys.

“At Girl Scouts we have more than 100 years of experience in championing girls and their unique needs,” Shockey said. “This report reflects our ongoing commitment to elevating the social, emotional, and academic well-being of girls, along with recommendations for how we as girl serving organizations, educators, caregivers, and policy makers need to join together with intentional focus on the unique challenges that our girls face. Just like in the Girl Scout mission, together we can make HER world a better place.”

A full copy of the report can be found at gsci.me/indianagirlreport.